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Chelsea Utting is one of three returning seniors for the Nittany Lions in 2014.

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Women's tennis ranked No. 49 in first spring ITA poll

January 3, 2014

Women's tennis ranked No. 49 in first spring ITA poll

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Penn State women's tennis team will enter the spring season ranked No. 49 in the ITA Rankings. This is the second year in a row the Nittany Lions will begin the spring season ranked in the team poll having shared the No. 50 spot with UNLV in the first poll last season.

Last season the Nittany Lions had one of their best seasons in program history beginning the season on a nine-game winning streak. Penn State peaked at No. 30 in last year's rankings while knocking off five teams ranked in the season's final ITA Poll. The Nittany Lions finished the season at No. 47 and Petra Januskova (Ottawa, Canada) and Chelsea Utting (Peachtree City, Ga.) became only the third pair of Nittany Lions to compete in the NCAA Doubles Tournament.

The Nittany Lions bring back eight players from last year's team with Utting, Carmen Sandor (Toronto, Canada) and Marie-Frederique Bedard (Montreal, Canada) all returning for their senior seasons. Utting ranked as high as No. 21 in last season's doubles rankings but will begin this season unranked.

The Nittany Lions join seven other Big Ten teams in the ITA Team Poll with Michigan leading the way at No. 11 followed by Northwestern and Nebraska at No. 15 and No. 25 respectively. Purdue (No. 27), Indiana (No. 41), Illinois (No. 44) and Ohio State (No. 72) also enter the season in the rankings.

Penn State will also face six non-conference teams ranked in the ITA Team Poll this spring including No. 43 Kentucky at home on Saturday, Feb. 1. The remaining ranked teams on the schedule are No. 19 Baylor, No. 39 VCU, No. 40 William & Mary, No. 52 SMU and No. 59 South Florida.

The Nittany Lions do not feature any players ranked in the ITA National and Regional Singles and Doubles Poll to start the season. The next ITA Poll will be released on Jan. 21 and it will only be the Team Poll. The ITA Singles and Double Rankings will be updated on on Feb. 11. Regional rankings will not be updated again until the season's end on June 4.